Hello Friends,
Hallowe’en is just around the corner. Pumpkins are lined up in front of my house, awaiting knife cuts to become jack-o-lanterns. Others are inside, soon to be halved, roasted, and turned into pie. Late fall is a favorite time of year – it’s finally cool enough to turn on the oven and roast/bake/broil, turning the season’s bounty into cozy meals and desserts.
We’re a cobbler house. The last of the season’s peaches and raspberries were recently topped with almonds and oats. Just before that, plums received a similar treatment. Requests are flowing in from my boys for apples and pears, a cobbler recipe they’ve made on their own since pre-school. (Thanks, Wilana and Rania at Harmony Montessori!) I guess I should try one with quince but isn’t the point of cobbler its simplicity? Harrumph.
As the season turns, so will my food coverage. I’m bringing back my annual gift guides – foodie, boozy, sparklers, and cookbooks – and my events coverage will expand, too. It’s too much for one newsletter a month, so my email cadence will flow twice a month during November and December. What’s on your holiday wish list?
What’s Hot:
Not all together and not all at the same time. These are just a few of the food and food-adjacent events that have caught my attention in late autumn.
Photo credit: Joseph Weaver
Chef Mateo Granados Pops into Spoonbar (Oct 24)
Do you recall with fondness the cooking of Mateo Granados at now-closed Mateo’s Cocina Latina? If, like me, you do, then head on over to Healdsburg’s Spoonbar. The restaurant is hosting its annual Harvest Dinner for an exclusive collaboration with Chef Granados. Dinner (from 5-9 p.m.) is seven courses, including deviled duck eggs with pickled sriracha and Dungeness crab chile relleno. Each dish is paired with a selection from Healdsburg’s Emmitt-Scorsone Wines.
$95 per person.
Sake Pairing Dinners at Birdsong (Oct 24 & 25)
Did you know that sake sales doubled in the USA between 2014 and 2022? I didn’t either. So when I was invited to a Japanese Sake Pairing Night, popping up at San Francisco’s two-Michelin star Birdsong, I leaned in. Sake expert and certified sake sommelier Eduardo Dingler served as an expert guide on why each sake was a delicious complement to Chef Christopher Bleidorn’s 6-course menu, including.
- Californian salt-cured halibut served with marinated seaweeds from Mendocino paired with Toko “Divine Droplets” a Junmai Daiginjo from Yamagata
- Fire-roasted abalone and artichoke (wow! so good!) paired with Dewazakura ‘Mountain Cherry’ Daiginjo, from Yamagata
- Ember-seared black cod atop a sunflower seed milk “jus” and a perfect Parker House roll for sopping up, paired with Taiheizan ‘Tenko 40’ Heavenly Grace, from Akita.
It was a glorious evening, a marvelous co-joining of exceptional Californian cuisine and the harmonious flavors of Japan’s refined, koji-driven drink. The umami levels of this meal were off the charts!
$305 per person
Make a Reservation for October 24
Make a Reservation for October 25
Chotto Matte’s Phantom Feast (Oct 31 – Nov 2)
Union Square’s buzzy rooftop restaurant with Japanese and Peruvian cuisine is celebrating Día de los Muertos. The eight-course Nikkei menu (and optional wine pairing) highlights the best of San Francisco’s Chotto with the global brand’s signature ceviche, spicy chicken karaage, sato maki, and Wagyu sirloin as featured dishes. (A vegetarian menu is said to be equally indulgent.) The space is already so vibey, I can only imagine that they’ll take this one to eleven, just because.
$175 per person
Caviar Co’s Tea Service (Nov 1-Dec 31)
Yes, the Spiced Spritz is back along with a selection of teas, and savory and sweet bites like brie and apple sandwich or poached pear panna cotta, topped with eight different caviars from around the world. The holiday season experience will be offered at their downtown Tiburon Champagne Lounge, Wednesday – Saturday, 12-4 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. and costs $120 pp.
Idlewild Wines’ Truffle Dinner (Nov 2)
Flavors of Film: Common Ground (Nov 9)
Following the film, attendees will enjoy a farm-to-table dinner, accompanied by wine and non-alcoholic beverages as well as conversations with Michael Dimock, head of Roots of Change, and special guests who will discuss strategies for improving our food systems.
Left Door’s Sunday Tea Service (Nov 17, Dec 15…)
If ever there was a reason for day drinking in your Sunday best, brunch at San Francisco’s Left Door is it. The swanky cocktail lounge in Cow Hollow is typically not open while the sun is shining – and brunch is only available, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. on the third Sunday of each month (Nov 17, Dec 15, Jan 19, etc.).
The menu, from Executive Chef Paul Toxqui (Saison, Single Thread) is served from tiered stands, the better to savor while lounging on a chaise, my dear. Lox tartines, yuzu madeleines with savory chantilly and kaluga caviar, huckleberry waffles with black sage honey, etc. etc. can be paired with a clarified Bloody Mary, a mimosa, coffee-based NA options like horchata cold brew and a matcha tonic. No word on whether this is a singles or couples thing …
Tickets start at $250 for two people
Restaurants On My RADAR
I recently spent a week in New York City, reveling in the fall weather and the sheer scale of the restaurant scene. On my return, I checked in on some old San Francisco favorites and discovered a few new ones.
At Rockerfeller Center, Naro is what I look for in any restaurant, in this case, cooking new Korean/Korean-American: Inventiveness, creativity, and playfulness in dishes that reflect new ways of thinking about a cuisine, while being solidly rooted in the home culture. Plus fun cocktails. It’s all on rink level, which had me, my brother and my mom reminiscing about a visit years ago when the space was a diner and we ate fruit cups with cottage cheese. Ha.
On the LES, Van Da is the perfect neighborhood restaurant, embodying cool style with freshness on the plate – the chef’s Vietnamese street food is best captured in the “banh,” like crispy turmeric rice cakes or shrimp and pork tapioca dumplings. We ordered – and loved – them all.
On the UES, Phillip Chow was chosen by my oldest brother. It’s swish and fabulous (dress to kill) and wowed me with its Peking duck and perfectly executed vegetable dishes.
Back in the Bay Area, we celebrated Stefan’s birthday with our annual pilgrimmage to Foreign Cinema, whose purple cabbage salad with chile crunch rocked the table. Kudos to the staff, who year after year, deliver the same excellent service and excellent flavors from Gayle Pirie and the BOH staff. How do they do it? They are a shining example of excellence in the industry. Congrats on 25 years!
On a blustery evening over in mid-Market, dinner at Rise Over Run, the rooftop restaurant of The Line Hotel, was all warm and sunny vibes. A Negroni Coast cocktail was a little too easy to enjoy while a plate of Maryland blue crab was warm and bright with coriander and harissa notes. The aloha spirit is alive and well here.
Monthly Cookbook Column
For my fifth review, I chose Erin Alderson’s The Yearlong Pantry. Not so much a book about cooking in-season, then storing for later use later, Alderson’s latest is more about how to cook with grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. That is, ingredients that you can KEEP in your pantry and pull out at any time of year to create nourishing, satisfying meals. It’s vegetarian, too.
Read the entire cookbook review on my website.
Find the book for purchase here.
Here Come the Holidays
Thanks to everyone who sent suggestions of delicious drinks and eats for consideration for my annual holiday gift guides – boozy, foodie, sparklers and cookbooks. At this time, the suggestion box is CLOSED. I’ll be appearing in your inbox in coming weeks with ALL the goodies.
What I’m Reading & Watching
I wish I could share the graphic from the New York Times’ article in the Business section on October 23, “The Quest to Save the ‘King’ of Japanese Rice from Rising Temperatures.” See for yourself! The issue of climate change became doubly-relevant when my younger son brought up the rising price of chocolate due to extreme weather in Africa impacting the cocoa crop. And the price of his chocolate bars.
And, even though I only read book spines while there, a visit to The Morgan Library while in New York was inspired by reading “The Personal Librarian.” The book tells the story of Belle da Cosat Greene, who worked with J.P. Morgan to amass an incredible collection of books and antiquaries. The image above is my Mom at the library. And here’s my review of the book. I think we spent more time in the book shop and drinking coffee in the cute cafe than in the library itself. It’s a stunner, though.
About That Image
The beef tartare, cauliflower gangjeong salad, and KFC sandwich all carried delicious secrets, but it was the corny dessert we were talking about when we left Naro at Rockerfeller Center. New York, home of the corn dog, can add this yummy little number to the ranks of dishes New York should be known for. With heat lasting well into October, one benefit is fresh corn well past August. If it means desserts like this, I’m not exactly ok with it, but it makes the heat much more bearable.
Thanks for reading and be in touch.
Christina